Chris Oddo| @thefanchild | Tuesday, March 3, 2025
BNP Paribas in Wells, India offers a new surface in Laykold this year. But is it any different from the old one?
Regarding the decision to move to a new provider, the decisions of many people about the decision and what it means for the future of the game, it is many notorious slow race conditions that have allowed IGA Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz Thrive to flourish.
To be honest, the players don’t seem to know the difference.
“They are faster and good for me, right?” Aryna Sabalenka said Tuesday. “No, but it feels good, so far it feels good. After the first game, I’ll tell you. I hope I still like it.”
“The courts are faster, right? I don’t know,” said the two-time defending champion. Carlos AlcarazWhen asked.
“Laykold will bring new dynamics to the event to ensure ATP and WTA players have the best playing environment, which is the best,” Laykold said in a statement released on the tournament website. “Laykold’s courts offer greater consistency than accepted industry standards. By adjusting the court’s speed to 0.5 points, Laykold’s scientists and expert installers will bring the most stable court in tennis history to California’s “fifth major”. This will ensure an exciting, advanced, action-packed BNP Paribas open in 2025.”
“I don’t think it’s fast, but I’ll say maybe the bounce is a little lower,” 2023 Champion Elena Rybakina explain. “The past few days are windy and there are a lot of suns, so the bounce is a little different. But I think the court is still good.”
Brad Stine Tommy PaulHe said he had two hours of practice at Stadium 1 with Alexander Zverev on Monday.
“I think the court performed similarly to last year,” he said. “Last year it was slow. We practiced with Sascha on Stadium 1 yesterday and the bounce was really high there.”
Some believe that Laykold is trying to function evenly around the world. They complain because they find it more interesting to have many different surface speeds, which makes many different types of players thrive. They make a good point, but they may point to the culprit of the wrong ones. It seems that Laykold has not accelerated the speed of courts in Wells, India at all.
Daniil MedvedevHe complained in both the 2023 and 2024 finals that the court said in each of his finals that they might actually be closer. “It’s a shame to the sport,” Medvedev said in a particularly hard-working moment in his 2023 match against Alexander Zverev.
He may complain more this year…
“I like Indian wells, I even like courts, but they seem to be much slower than before, very slower,” he said on Tuesday during media day. “I played for two days and they looked very, very slow, so let’s see how they performed during the game. And I didn’t see the difference. Like, today I accidentally fell off my racket and I didn’t throw it away (smile), it was actually thrown away from low height, the grip was entirely because of how rough the court was, and when the court was very slow and it was very slow.”
